WASHINGTON: US President-elect Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping discussed issues including TikTok, trade and Taiwan in a phone call on Friday, just days before the former takes office again, promising tariffs that could ratchet up tensions between the world’s two biggest economies.

Both leaders were upbeat about the call, with Trump calling it “a very good one” and Xi saying he and Trump both hoped for a positive start to US-China relations, according to Chinese state broadcaster CCTV.

This was the first known phone call between the pair after Trump’s election in November.

The call came shortly before the US Supreme Court on Friday annou­nced a ruling upholding a law that mandates TikTok owner ByteDance divest TikTok’s US assets by Sunday to a non-Chinese buyer, or be banned on national security concerns.

Both sides ‘upbeat’ following call

Both countries are embroiled in an array of diplomatic and economic disagreements, including an accelerating technological and military rivalry and bitter trade disputes. Marco Rubio, Trump’s nominee to be his secretary of state, has defined China as the gravest threat facing the US and warned about the risks of possible military conflict between the two countries.

“The call was a very good one for both China and the U.S.A. It is my expectation that we will solve many problems together, and starting immediately. We discussed balancing Trade, Fentanyl, TikTok, and many other subjects,” Trump wrote on his social media platform.

“President Xi and I will do everything possible to make the World more peaceful and safe!” Xi raised China’s concerns about Taiwan, which Beijing maintains is part of its territory, and said he hoped the U.S. would treat the matter with great care.

“The Taiwan issue concerns China’s national sovereignty and territorial integrity, and he hopes the U.S. side will handle it with caution,” he said according to Chinese state television.

Xi said the United States and China can have their differences but must respect each other’s core interests, and that trade relations can be mutually beneficial without confrontation and conflict, comments similar to those he made during Trump’s first term.

The Chinese readout of the call said the two leaders agreed to set up a “channel of strategic communication to keep in regular touch on major issues of shared interest.” Trump offered strong support to Taiwan, including regularizing arms sales, in his first term. But during the campaign last year, he said Taiwan should pay the US to be defended.

Breaking with tradition, Trump had invited Xi and other foreign leaders to his Jan. 20 inauguration, but China is sending Vice President Han Zheng, a move signaling Beijing’s desire to step up communication with the incoming administration.

This week Beijing slammed comments by Marco Rubio, Trump’s nominee for secretary of state, as “unwarranted attacks,” after Rubio called China “the most... dangerous near-peer adversary” the United States had ever faced.

Rubio said that China cheated its way to superpower status, and he vowed to ramp up defenses of Taiwan, the self-governing democratic island claimed by Beijing, to prevent a “cataclysmic military intervention.” Xi said on the call that “the Taiwan question concerns China’s national sovereignty and territorial integrity.

Published in Dawn, January 18th, 2025